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Last month, on the occasion of its third anniversary, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) touted its numerous successes in its three years of existence, including $4.6 billion in relief and refunds for consumers. That number will take a big jump when the CFPB adds in its recent $16.65 billion settlement with Bank of America. A $16.65 billion settlement is big number by any measurement. But subsequently it has been reported that B of A

Have your customers been asking about virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin? Do you have answers for their questions? Occasionally the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) lives up to their name. Recently the CFPB published a very helpful Consumer Advisory entitled Risks to Consumers Posed by Virtual Currencies. The Advisory explains how virtual currencies work and various risks associated with the product. It includes several real world stories of losses resulting from fraud and mishandling of virtual currencies.

On July 30, 2014, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that, if finalized, will amend the Bank Secrecy Act regulations to enhance customer due diligence (CDD) requirements imposed on financial institutions (i.e. banks, brokers and dealers in securities, mutual funds, and future commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities).  In an effort to increase financial transparency and protect the financial system from

Recently we polled our Compliance Master Group members on the Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgages rules. There were no huge surprises, but we got a lot of confirmation of what we expected to see: Most creditors use a mix of ATR/QM options; The Small Creditor QM is the most popular ATR/QM option; Adopting the ATR/QM rules was a challenge, but did not reduce loan volume for most creditors; and Most creditors have not yet adopted Appendix Q, but

On July 24, 2104 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published proposed rules to implement changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Some of the proposed changes are mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, others are part of a CFPB effort to modernize and streamline regulations. Comments on the 572-page proposal are due on or before October 22, 2014. Coverage There had been speculation that coverage would be expanded to all mortgage lenders that originated